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article	The Bitwarden command-line tool (CLI)	miscellaneous	false	false	true	cli command script bash shell powershell

Bitwarden provides a powerful, full-featured command-line interface (CLI) tool to access and manage your Bitwarden vault. All features that you find in other Bitwarden client applications (desktop, browser extension, etc) are also available through the CLI. The CLI can be used cross-platform on Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions.

Quick Start

1. Download and install the CLI for your platform.

2. Move bw to /usr/local/bin or another directory in your $PATH. Windows users can add bw.exe to the current user's PATH{:target="_blank"}. If you installed the CLI with NPM{:target="_blank"} (or another package manager) you can skip this step since bw should automatically be added to your path.

3. Verify the bw command works in your terminal.

   bw --help
   

Table of Contents

• Download & Install
  • Native executable
  • NPM
• Session Management
  • Environment Variable
  • --session <key> Option
  • Locking
  • Login != Unlock
• Explore the CLI
• Managing Your Vault
  • Sync
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Edit
  • Delete
• Other Useful Commands
  • Export
  • Generate
  • Encode
  • Config
  • Update
  • Version
• Working with JSON
• Source Code
• Appendix
  • Templates
  • Enums

Download & Install

You can install the Bitwarden CLI multiple different ways:

Native executable

Natively packaged versions of the CLI for each platform have no dependencies.

• {% icon fa-windows fa-lg fa-fw %} Windows x64
• {% icon fa-apple fa-lg fa-fw %} macOS x64
• {% icon fa-linux fa-lg fa-fw %} Linux x64

NPM

If you already have the Node.js runtime installed on your system, you can install the CLI using NPM{:target="_blank"}. NPM makes it easy to keep your installation updated and should be the preferred installation method if you are already using Node.js.

npm install -g @bitwarden/cli

Session Management

You can log into your Bitwarden user account by using the login command:

bw login [email] [password]

After logging in you will be returned a session key. This session key is necessary to perform any commands that require your vault to be unlocked (list, get, edit, etc). You can pass the --raw option to login to receive only the session key from stdout.

bw login [email] [password] --raw

You should pass the session key to CLI commands by setting the BW_SESSION environment variable or by using the --session <key> option:

Environment Variable

{% icon fa-linux %} {% icon fa-apple %} Bash

export BW_SESSION="5PBYGU+5yt3RHcCjoeJKx/wByU34vokGRZjXpSH7Ylo8w=="
bw list items

{% icon fa-windows %} PowerShell

$env:BW_SESSION="5PBYGU+5yt3RHcCjoeJKx/wByU34vokGRZjXpSH7Ylo8w=="
bw list items

--session <key> Option

bw list items --session 5PBYGU+5yt3RHcCjoeJKx/wByU34vokGRZjXpSH7Ylo8w==

{% note %} It is possible to persist your session key to your environment (for example, exporting it in .bashrc), however, we do not recommend doing this. Your active session key is the encryption key used to unlock all data associated with your Bitwarden vault and is not well-suited for persisting on an unprotected disk. {% endnote %}

Locking

If you do not pass the session key to commands that require it you will receive an error message that your vault is locked. You can unlock your vault and/or receive a new session key by using the unlock command:

bw unlock [password]

Additionally, you can manually lock your vault and destroy any active session keys by using the lock command:

bw lock

If your active session key is unavailable (for example, you accidentally lost it or closed your active terminal window), your vault is already considered locked and therefore using the lock command is unnecessary.

Login != Unlock

The login and unlock commands are different. login requires your email address and master password and performs authentication against the external Bitwarden server (requiring additional two-step login prompts, if configured). unlock performs local authentication only (against a persisted hash) and therefore would work even without an active internet connection or if the external Bitwarden server is not available. You cannot unlock your vault if you have not already logged in first.

Most users should prefer locking and unlocking their vault rather than logging out and logging in. This is the same process and workflow that all other Bitwarden client applications follow. A typical use case would be that a user logs into the CLI application only once and then only performs unlock commands thereafter.

Explore the CLI

The Bitwarden CLI is self-documented with --help content and examples for every command. You should start exploring the CLI by using the global --help option:

bw --help

This option will list all available commands that you can use with the CLI.

Additionally, you can run the --help option on a specific command to learn more about it:

bw list --help
bw create --help

Managing Your Vault

Sync

The sync command downloads your encrypted vault from the Bitwarden server. If you have changed something in your Bitwarden vault on another client device (ex. the browser extension) you may need to use the sync command to see those changes:

bw sync

It's important to note that the sync command is only a pull operation. It does not push data to the server since that is already done for you each time you make a change to your vault (create, edit, delete).

You can use the --last option to get an ISO 8601{:target="_blank"} timestamp of the last time a sync has been performed:

bw sync --last

List

The list command allows you to retrieve an array of objects from your vault.

bw list (items|folders|collections) [options]

You can search the list of returned objects by using the --search option. You can also filter the list by using the --folderid, --collectionid, or --organizationid options. Combining search with filter options performs a logical AND operation.

bw list items --search github --folderid 9742101e-68b8-4a07-b5b1-9578b5f88e6f

Special syntax is available for filters that allows you to specify null and !null as valid values. Combining multiple filters together performs a logical OR operation.

bw list items --folderid null --organizationid !null

Get

The get command allows you to retrieve a single object from your vault.

bw list (item|username|password|uri|totp|exposed|attachment|folder|collection|template) <id>

You can retrieve an object by its globally using id property (usually a GUID), or you can provide a search term. The search term must be specific enough to only return a single result or you will get an error.

bw get item 99ee88d2-6046-4ea7-92c2-acac464b1412
bw get password https://google.com
bw get totp google
bw get exposed yahoo.com

If you are getting an attachment, you must also specify the --itemid <id> option of the item that the attachment belongs to.

bw get attachment b857igwl1dzrs2 --output ./photo.jpg \ 
    --itemid 99ee88d2-6046-4ea7-92c2-acac464b1412
bw get attachment photo.jpg --raw \
    --itemid 99ee88d2-6046-4ea7-92c2-acac464b1412

Create

The create command allows you to create new objects in your vault.

bw create (item|folder) [encodedJson]

The process for creating an object may look something like this:

1. Get the JSON template(s) for the object you are trying to create:

   bw get template folder
   

2. Edit the JSON template with the values you want to use for that object.

3. Base 64 encode the JSON string. You can use the encode command included with the CLI and pipe in the JSON string from stdin:

   echo '{"name":"My Folder"}' | bw encode
   

4. Create the item:

   bw create folder eyJuYW1lIjoiTXkgRm9sZGVyIn0=
   

The create command can also receive encoded JSON as stdin. A complete example, using jq to update a template's JSON (see more working with JSON below), may look something like this:

bw get template folder | jq '.name = "My Folder"' | bw encode | bw create folder

Upon success, the newly created object's id will be returned.

To create a new attachment for an item, specify the --file path on disk as well as the --itemid.

bw create attachment --file ./path/to/myfile.csv \
    --itemid 16b15b89-65b3-4639-ad2a-95052a6d8f66

Edit

The edit command allows you to edit an item in your vault. It works similarly to the create command with the added requirement of an object id. The edit command will perform a replace operation on the object.

bw edit (item|folder) <id> [encodedJson]

bw edit folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782 eyJuYW1lIjoiV2hhdCBGb2xkZXIifQ==
bw get folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782 | jq '.name = "Updated Folder"' | \
    bw encode | bw edit folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782

Delete

The delete command allows you to delete an object from your vault.

bw delete (item|attachment|collection) <id> [options]

bw delete folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782
bw delete attachment b857igwl1d --itemid 310d5ffd-e9a2-4451-af87-ea054dce0f78

Other Useful Commands

The CLI comes with several other commands that you may find useful.

Export

The export command allows you to export your unencrypted vault data to a CSV formatted file on disk.

bw export [password] [--output <filePath>]

bw export
bw export myPassword321 --output ./backups/

Generate

The generate command allows you to generate strong passwords.

bw generate [--lowercase --uppercase --number --special --length]

bw generate
bw generate -u -l --length 18
bw generate -ulns --length 25

Encode

The encode command Base 64 encodes stdin. This command is a helpful utility when performing create and update operations.

<jsonString> | bw encode

echo '{"name":"My Folder"}' | bw encode
bw get template folder | jq '.name = "My Folder"' | bw encode | bw create folder

Config

The config command allow you to specify settings for the CLI to use.

bw config <setting> <value>

For example, if you are using a self hosted Bitwarden server you will need to change the endpoint that the CLI communicates with.

bw server https://bitwarden.company.com

Update

The update command allows you to check if your CLI is up to date. The CLI will not automatically update. You must download new versions of the CLI manually.

bw update

A URL to download a new version of the CLI executable will be returned to you.

{% note %} If you have installed the CLI through a package managers (such as NPM), you should use the update commands available for that tool. For example, npm update -g @bitwarden/cli. {% endnote %}

Version

The --version option allows you to check which version the CLI you are currently using.

bw --version

Working with JSON

All commands in the CLI will either return JSON or a simple string like a URL or GUID. When you need to parse or manipulate JSON output or input from the CLI we recommend using the jq command-line tool.

# Get a login item's password
bw get item google | jq '.login.password'

# Create a new folder from a template
bw get template folder | jq '.name = "My Folder"' | bw encode | bw create folder

# Update an existing folder's name
bw get folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782 | jq '.name = "Updated Folder"' | \
    bw encode | bw edit folder dadc91e0-dcda-4bc2-8cd6-52100027c782

Source Code

As with everything here at Bitwarden, the CLI is fully open source and hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/bitwarden/cli.

Appendix

Templates

You can use the get command to retrieve templates for various types of objects and sub-objects. Templates are useful when needing to get the "base" JSON object to work with while using the create command. A template's JSON properties are sometimes populated with example data that you should change.

• item
• item.field
• item.login
• item.login.uri
• item.card
• item.identity
• item.securenote
• folder
• collection

bw get template item

Some templates are meant to be used a sub-objects to another template's properties. For example, the item.login template is to be used with the item template's login property.

Enums

Two Step Login Methods

Name	Value
Authenticator	0
Email	1
Yubikey	3

{% note %} Other two-step login methods such as FIDO U2F and Duo are not supported by the CLI. {% endnote %}

Item Types

Name	Value
Login	1
Secure Note	2
Card	3
Identity	4

Login URI Match Types

Name	Value
Domain	0
Host	1
Starts With	2
Exact	3
Regular Expression	4
Never	5

Field Types

Name	Value
Text	0
Hidden	1
Boolean	2

Secure Note Types

Name	Value
Generic	0